Burning Island (in simplified Chinese 火烧屿) is the largest domain Island in the west of Xiamen Island. The sea and land area of the island was about 27 hectares, and it is 900 meters long from north to south, with east-west width of 400 meters. The top mountain of the island was more than 347 meters above sea level, and from south to north the angle of elevation gradually decreased.

In the past, people called this island as “Fishing Island” because there were always fishermen fishing in this island. Sadly, in the Song Dynasty, the government sent soldiers to this island and forced people to move back to live in the mainland. The people in the island refused, and the soldiers burnt the island to make the people leave the island. After a few decades, people were allowed to go back to this island, but there were still ruins and the remains of the burnt houses and land. Therefore, people regarded this island as “Burning Island”.

It is quite shocking, right? The government used fire to force people to leave the island. Yes, in fact, in Chinese history, this is not the first time that the government or the current leader used fire to force people to leave a certain city or place. In the Three Kingdom period, one of the heroes, Qio, burnt the capital of the current Dynasty to force the citizens there follow him to move to other place. It was quite bad indeed.

Anyway, if you are visiting this island nowadays, you would probably not able to see the ruins caused by the fire, because they are probably all cleared up. However, you would be able to see how the new plants grow in this island. As you might know, succession would take place when there is a fire burning away the things in a certain jungle or forest. Therefore, if you would like to see how the fire changes the island, you should surely come to this place.